Prot PvP

After seeing Xanadu - Korgath running around IF, I have decided to make a few changes to my pvp prot gear setup. At first I used my regular tank setup with 21k+ hp and 1200 or so block value and like 10%(lol) crit. My changed setup gained about 13% crit, 25% armor pen, and 300 block value at the cost of 4k hp(I fully feel it's worth it).

Last night Kron, Zreo, Kuzii, and myself were doing some skirmishes versus each other, several of the games I remember getting whoever I went on to 40% hp or less in just a charge stun(mind you, all three of them are in full brutal)! One game after Kuzii quit queueing it was me and Zreo vs Kron and some pug druid with 8k hp. I charged the druid and shield slam crit him for 7600 followed by a 2000 rocket glove(pyro rocket crits for about 3300 xD) to "one-shot" him!

So today, while at work I've been terribley bored and decided I'd try and chardev my BiS for prot pvp.

I already have most of this gear, hehe, except I need to get a second set of of some things and regem it.

I was wondering what you think kumo.

I also came up with this.

You lose 190 block value, 37% armor pen, 600 hp, and about 10 AP.You gain 150 resil, and 17% crit(52.5% crit with shield slam, devastate, and revenge is just crazy and great for rage generation).

I think the first setup would be better for dueling or with a healer in 2s, and this setup would be great for playing double dps. I really want to try both sets. lol I just need a good healer to do 2s with(druid or priest pref. for the CC chains).

This is something I was considering as well for Prot PvP as I had seen some discussions around from other 80 Prot Warrior PvPers. Although it is hard to say how well it relates between Prot at 80 and Prot at 70, some are pushing for more of a DPS approach.

Shield Slam is where most of our burst comes from, and outside of Sword and Board, it is not very consistent. Gearing for more offensive stats such as AP, ArP and Crit would make us more deadly with Devastate (Revenge is not reliable against casters).

There is a blog I follow for unrelated reasons however its main author is a Gladiator Prot Warrior named Marcko (sample post of his blog). He had some interesting comments about this as well. Unfortunately he does not write often at all about Prot PvP.

As I am sure you know, I have not experimented with this at all since Rosuto is very much on the back burner for me these days. Eventually I would like to mess around with Prot PvP some more.

Here is a thought for you though: Prot warriors are already way harder to kill than an Arms warrior, so why are you gearing so much for survivability? Look at Rosuto. I gear him almost entirely for more offensive pressure. Generally I have been paired up (at least in WotLK) with relatively undergeared partners, but in the vast majority of comps you could be apart of why would anyone try to kill the Prot Warrior first?

_________________“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”-- Carl Sagan

I'm not gearing for survivability. The ArP/stam gems are to keep my health pool close to 16k, because I have less than half your resil(and 1/10th in the first set) and a marginal amount more health than you. I can still lose to a ret paladin in a 1v1 scenario due to not having shattering throw. ArP/crit gems dont exist either or I would have stacked those in both sets.

Comparing that video to my gear, even without impale I still crit that hard on mobs.

Your effective HP is proportional to your Resilience. Perhaps you should gem Res instead of HP? A ret paladin gives you trouble because your extra survivability is offset by the lack of MS so he just outlasts you through Art of War Flash of Lights. Any good Ret Paladin will beat either an Arms Warrior or Protection Warrior at this level.

Perhaps we are not seeing eye-to-eye because I am speaking about gearing for Arena. That stamina is not going to win games in arena. In 1v1? Even for an Arms Warrior it is usually optimal to gem for Stamina.

_________________“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”-- Carl Sagan

Right now, my partner is a ret paladin so stamina benefits me moreso than resil will. You're also forgetting about last stand and the talents from prot that increase your stam. In the first set, I changed the gems to armor pen and gained 10% armor pen and lost 1k health.

Unless I am like a shadow priest or affliction warlock, I would still think your ret paladin would be easier to kill than a prot warrior. Perhaps if I was on Sukai and paired up with a good rogue you would be a better target. I guess you would be more familiar with your own comp than I would, though.

_________________“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”-- Carl Sagan

I was talking buffs. I use battle while my ret uses kings. With kings I would get about 1k more hp. When using last stand and using the stam gems I get to soak up another 5k damage, pair that with shield wall. The problem with mage rogue vs us would be we have defensive dispels and; although not spammable, roughly as much cc as you have. My ret would basically shit on your rogue while i make sure you dont get any full casts off.